Continuous Conference Speeds AIDS Help

A nonstop electronic conference now provides health workers in developing countries with the latest information about the spread and treatment of AIDS. Called Procaare (Program for Collaboration Against AIDS and Related Epidemics), it uses satellites, the Internet, and the expertise of researchers at the Harvard AIDS Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital.

More than 90 percent of new AIDS infections around the world occur in developing nations where caregivers lack telephone service, and direct Internet access is too expensive. Procaare uses satellite communication where telephones are unavailable, and, where it is available, a system of inexpensive local calls to replace costly international calls.

"Procaare is a major breakthrough in global communications about AIDS and related epidemics," says Richard Marlink, executive director of the Harvard AIDS Institute. "We now have a means by which to continue dialogue on a daily basis that is affordable for everyone in the field. The cost of an international telephone call between two developing countries can be $10 to $12 a minute. Procaare can achieve the same immediate exchange of information for pennies."

Procaare and other electronic conferences are operated by SatelLife, a Boston-based nonprofit organization supported by private funds. Other conferences cover emerging diseases and drugs. The service goes to professional subscribers in 30 countries at no charge.

Those without access to a telephone can get information with the help of a laptop or personal computer hooked to a transmitter-receiver combination. The latter holds information in a compressed form, and sends it to a satellite that passes overhead six times a day. For those with telephone service, sending information to a transceiver requires only a local call. Using this system, health-care workers and researchers also obtain the latest health news and can even access the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md.

On the other end, satellites dump output from developing countries to a ground station in Boston. Questions and requests for information go to so-called conference moderators who relay them throughout the system via the Internet and satellite.

For example, a doctor in Pakistan recently asked for advice about home care for those infected with the AIDS virus. During the following two days, he received responses from Puerto Rico and Zambia about successful home-care projects.

This week, the system carried a warning about a Chinese herbal medicine being imported into Zimbabwe with the claim that it cures AIDS. The sender fears that such claims, similar to a much touted AIDS cure in Kenya, will undermine efforts to control sexual practices that spread the disease.

Other participants in Procaare also include the European Commission, the Uganda Viral Research Institute, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The conference can be accessed at http://www.healthnet.org/procaare.html.
- William J. Cromie